The Over-Break System

"TIME, BOTH COMBATANTS REPORT TO THE BATTLEFIELD CENTER FOR INSTRUCTIONS." Instructor Garrison dropped his arm when the timer hit zero and ordered Gabby and Alistar to meet up.

Slightly panicked, Gabby extended her hand and scooped up two full quivers of bolts before placing them on her belt and running towards Garrison with her training crossbow in hand.

Taking a deep breath, Gabby stepped up and bowed at both Alister and Garrison before putting on her game face and waiting for her introduction.

"IN THE RED CORNER, WE HAVE COMBATANT FELIX ALISTAR USING THE COMPOUND BOW!"

"Ah shit, that is ironic," Hearing what weapon Instructor Alistar was using, Cynrik sighed and shook his head at Gabby.

"This will still be a good learning experience for her, Big Brother, don't mind it too much." Brance crossed his arms over his chest and huffed.

"IN THE BLUE CORNER IS COMBATANT GABRIELLA SANFORD, USING THE REPEATER CROSSBOW!"

Smiling brightly, Gabby waved at her cheering classmates in the bleachers, making them roar even louder.

"Tsk, that's pretty bias." So complaining, Cynrik looked over his shoulder with a frown only to see all the boys on their feet whooping and hollering, between the mixed chants and cheers; he could even hear people saying how cute Gabby was.

"My Gabby is quite adorable indeed," Brance said proudly, without a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"I have to side with Big bro on this one; the applause we all got doesn't even compare to my sisters; it is indeed quite biased." Shrugging his shoulders in defeat, Benny smiled helplessly. Sure, the applause he had received was technically more considerable than the brothers, but that was because he won against an Instructor.

"GABBY, KEEP ON YOUR TOES; THIS IS THE FIRST ARCHER BATLLE YOU'VE HAD!" Cupping his hands to his mouth, Brance ignored the gripes of Cynrik and Benny by shouting out some coaching words.

"KICK HIS ASS, GABBBBYYY!!! DO THE THING, SHOW THESE BOYS US GIRLS CAN PUT ON A GOOD SHOW TOO!" Jumping up and down beside Cynrik, rocking him back and forth, Selene screamed like a wild fangirl for Gabby, who blushed brightly upon hearing her encouraging words.

Standing a few meters away from MyrkLys, Professor Dennis and Headmaster Rivia shook their heads.

"The mouth on that girl," Professor Dennis mumbled, only to be met by the strange gaze of Headmaster Rivia.

"Chalk it up to growing up in a not so mentally healthy environment." He said while patting the Professor on his shoulder.

"Alright, you two, I want a clean battle; listen to my orders and protect yourself at all times. We will be using a modified rule set for this battle. The battle will cease if you are rendered unconscious, unable to continue, or I step in. Since this is an archer's battle and you are using non-lethal arrows or bolts, a special rule is being instituted. In the tips of your ammunition is a small dye pill. This pill will burst upon contact with the body, leaving a mark. If you receive three hits to the same point on your body, the marks will light up and administer a numbing agent to that body part, rendering you unable to use it any longer. The only exception is if you are marked on your Heart or in the head, those will be considered instant kill shot, and the battle will conclude." Instructor Garrison stood between Gabby and Instructor Alistar, listing the rules and explaining the new ones specifically for Archer's battles.

"If you have any questions, please state them now; if not, confirm you're ready with a gesture or verbal acknowledgment." Garrison first turned to Alistar, who removed his bow from his back and adjusted his two quivers before giving a thumbs up.

When he looked over at Gabby, she was nervously loading the small ammo box attached to the bottom of her forearm-sized Repeater Crossbow, so Instructor Garrison allowed her to finish before holding his left hand out between them and parallel to the ground.

"Ready Instructor." After doing a final check to ensure her weapon was in order, Gabby said while wearing a focused expression.

"ON MY MARK!"

The audience of students quieted down, and the silence was so deafening that everyone could swear they could hear each other's hearts beating. This was going to be a different battle than the previous two. Unlike the melee fighters, Archer battles had a tendency to be extremely fast-paced, and the combatants would constantly be flitting around the field. As a result, if one were to blink, it wouldn't be surprising if they missed the entire fight.

"FIGHT!" Raising his hand and commencing the fight, Garrison jumped backward as a volley of arrows whizzed by, aimed at Gabby's arms and legs. Instructor Alistar had dashed back and rapidly fired four arrows in one movement.

He was surprised to find that Gabby did not run away from them but stood her ground with her eyes closed instead. The audience watched with anticipation as the blunt arrows cut the air and approached the quietly standing girl.

However, just when they were about to connect, Gabby's eyes snapped open and glowed with Amethyst-colored light (Color Code, #a88bbd), freezing all four arrows centimeters from her body.

"Things won't be that easy for the Instructor; Gabby is the perfect combination of Psychic Affinity and Ranged fighter," Brance said with a smile.

Next, Gabby flicked her bangs out of her eyes, kicked off the ground, and controlled the four floating arrows to change direction before following after her as she put distance between herself and Alistar.

"Tsk, Psychic Rangers are always so annoying; it looks like I'll have to put more pepper on my attacks to break through the Mana." Instructor Alistar murmured while nocking another four arrows and aiming down the sight while running parallel to Gabby.

Keeping an eye on the Instructor, Gabby reached into a tiny drawstring bag attached to the opposite hip as her quiver and removed a small, easily missable object. Five of such items, in fact, and using her Psychic Affinity, snugly attached them onto the blunted point of all four arrows, and the bolt loaded into her Crossbow.

Once she was satisfied that the items wouldn't fall off during flight or impact, Gabby held up her weapon, aimed down sight, and fired before quickly releasing the four arrows floating around her.

[Brancie, you saw that, right? The thing she did there, can you tell what adjustments she made to those arrows? Unfortunately, it's too far, and the Mana signature around Gabby rippled for a second, but I wasn't able to get a good view.] Cynrik asked.

[I couldn't see what she attached to the arrowheads, but I can confirm she definitely added something to each one before firing it off.] Standing side by side, the two brothers narrowed their eyes and observed as Instructor Alistar easily dodged all five in-coming attacks and countered with his own.

Replaying her previous actions, when the arrows from Alistar got close, Gabby plucked them out of the air and put them on standby before attaching another few small items to them.

'That's ten; if this idea Selly and I came up with is to work properly, I will have to reach at least 40 total.' So Gabby thought to herself as she pivoted her foot and turned sharply. Then, by willing her Mana to coat her entire body in a thin layer of Psychic particles, Gabby activated [Longstrider], reducing her weight, and flashed towards Alistar before releasing the next volley of attacks at the man.

Seeing how Gabby was changing direction and using her Affinity skill to increase her speed, Alister's eyes narrowed.

"Interesting, Gabby wants to take the fight into closer quarters. Selene, how has she been in hand-to-hand training lately?" Cynrik asked.

"The little rabbit is a quick study; it didn't take her more than a single night to absorb most of what I could teach her. But she is still rough around the edges and lacks real combat experience."

The group watched as Gabby zig-zagged her way to within ten meters of Alistar, who responded by firing off one last volley of three, all of which missed their target.

CLANG CLANG

However, this time, Gabby could not snatch all the arrows from the sky. This was due to them being freshly released. As the nock leaves the bowstring, the arrow will be in a continuous state of rapid deceleration. By closing in on Alistar, she allowed him to release his attack with more power and subsequently left herself struggling to rip even one arrow out of the sky with her Affinity.

Still, Gabby had already predicted this outcome and was ready to counterattack. Using her metal Crossbow like a sword, she smacked the remaining two arrows from the sky before drawing the string back with her Affinity and firing off a bolt so close that all Alistar could do was block it with his forearm.

PUFF

Upon contacting Instructor Alistar's right arm, a small puff of purple powder exploded from the tip of Gabby's bolt. The numbing agent when into effect, leaving a round-colored dot on his skin; two more and the numbness would set in.

Clicking his tongue loudly, the Instructor unleashed a flurry of kicks at Gabby, who bobbed and weaved around them, not allowing the strikes to land, and ran passed Alistar, leaving him behind and confused by her actions.

He was sure that the girl was goading him into a fist fight, but her actions proved otherwise, making Cynrik burst out laughing at the confused look on the Instructor's face.

"Gabby got him good that time haha; our little rabbit for SURE isn't about to square up with a grown-ass man. But, even if she is confident in her physical abilities, there is too big of a size difference, so she made the right choice with a hit and run tactic." Cynrik said through a fit of laughter.

"One bolt isn't enough to destabilize his attacking capabilities. Gabby needs to land two more if she wants to knock the Instructor down a peg and into a melee fight." Brance, unlike Cynrik, wasn't laughing and instead spoke his observations.

Coming back to himself, Instructor Alistar turned his head to the side and easily dodged a quick bolt rattled off over Gabby's shoulder.

'This little girl is a bit too clever, although im not sure what she is doing to her bolts and my arrows before attacking with them; she is definitely laying some kind of trap.' Instructor Alister stomped the ground while analyzing his current situation, chasing after Gabby while shooting off more and more volleys of arrows, which were subsequently caught and returned to him a few moments later.

Gabby continued to play cat and mouse for several minutes until she noticed her MP was about to run out. Reacting to this information, she spun on her heels and jumped into the air, fired another bolt, then pulled out two Mana Potions, chugged them down, and landed on a [Floating disk] that had just appeared 10 meters above.

"Eh? What is she up to now?" Brance asked, but when he saw Cynrik frowning with [Mana Sight] activated, he too used it and was floored by what he witnessed.

Creating more disks, Gabby took to the skies while catching more arrows from Alistar, who was growing impatient at his lack of ability to end the battle. Like Garrison, he had limited his strength to Tier-2 and felt fatigued from how many times he had drawn his bowstring.

However, he realized something was wrong when he looked up and saw the big smile on Gabby's face. Feeling a sense of urgency, his eyes darted around, trying to figure out what she was up to, but when he came up short and trained his vision back on the girl, his pupils, alongside Cynrik, Brance, and Benny's constricted.

She was floating high above the battlefield, with her Crossbow stowed on her back and her arms stretched out, palms facing up and glowing in a warm lime-green light. Gabby giggled loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Careful Instructor Alistar and Garrison, I don't really have complete control over this new skill set… all the pieces are in place; let's get this battle started for real…[PLANT GROWTH]!"

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE

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